Can you safely lunging Bridled Horses?

Sylvia wrote to ask about "Is it proper to lunge a bridled horse? Or should you only a horse who has a halter or nothing on all on it's head?"

This is the response I sent her: Not to be smart aleck, but I don't where to find the rules on lunging a horse with head gear or not. Safety would be my first concern and it kinda depends what I'm lunging for, whether or not I'm free lunging or using a rope, what the experience of the horse is, and, whether or I am lunging in a round pen or not.

I am in the practice of usually free lunging any of my horses in a round pen before I ride him. I do this for several reasons: 1 - I believe it's good for the horse to warm up; 2 - I can see where his mind is and if he has any injuries or lameness; and 3 - because I'm in my sixties, and while you can't lunge the buck out of a horse, you can get the fresh off of him.

I pretty much exclusively use mecate reins, so I take the lead rope portion of the Mecate reins and put a clove hitch in it over the saddle horn before I free lunge the horse (see photo above). However, every once in a while the horse is pretty fresh and tossing his head while trotting or loping, the reins will flip over to one side of his head. You can actually look close and see the photo of the photo top right with the reins flipped over as the horse is trotting around the round pen. Usually not a problem, but every once in a while he or any horse can or will get it into the mind to race around, or be driven by some outside stimulus, like a county school bus going by and laying on the horn (true story), and I don't like having the reins messed up while he does so.

So in the past few years I have taken to tying a leather string around the reins and lead underneath his neck to keep them in place. (see photo above). I always carry an extra leather sting in a girth hitch on my rear saddle D ring as I had have use for that to make a repair on my or other rider's bridles or whatever needed fixing (see photo below).

Since I use Mecate's I automatically have a lead rope that can use to lunge the horse with as well. In the beginning when I am lunging a horse with a snaffle bit and mecate reins, I usually tie up the reins in the traditional manner so there is less room for the snaffle bit to go banging around the horse's mouth. As the horse's gains a understand it becomes more of a deal of putting a feel in a loose reins to send him, stop him or turn him, then I don't tie up the mecate reins, just twist loop the rein portion of the mecate over the horn while I lunge with the lead portion.

It would likely be the safest deal for the horse if you are free lunging him with headgear that the reins or lead rope are secured so it won't come loose and start dragging on the ground, not be loose enough so he can't step through it or step on it. I would not free lunge a horse with headgear unless you could stop him and draw him him to you in case there is a problem with the like this.